A New Beginning
by Sayoko Bizen
Summary: Everyone remembers where they were on a historic moment. This is about where Yuuri and Wolfram were when Barack Obama was elected the 44th President of the United States.


Disclaimer: I don't own Kyou Kara Maou! My beta DaystarsMom doesn't own it either. Mr. Obama currently owns himself, but will later be public property of the United States of America.

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It was a cliché, Wolfram had been told, but an evening makeout session in front of the television was supposed to be every middle-class guy's idyllic dream of romance in Yuuri's modern world. Thank you, brother of my husband, Wolfram said in his mind. He was still dressed in Yuuri's tee-shirt and shorts, having left his nightgown back home in Shin Makoku. Maybe he should have brought it after all, he thought. Nightgowns offered easy… access. Wolfram grinned from behind the couch at the picture of an oblivious Yuuri watching sports, remote in hand. The Tigers had won again, and all was right with the world.

As if the king had felt his presence, Wolfram was greeted with a smile and an outstretched hand. "Sit with me?" was the invitation. Wolfram made a protesting noise mid-squat when Yuuri said, "Not there," meaning beside him, and patted his own lap to signal his request. Here it comes, Wolfram thought to himself in glee. He all but flung himself onto Yuuri's arms and –

"We interrupt this broadcast for a special announcement. John McCain has conceded his bid for the American presidency,"

-- landed with a thud on the thermo-warmed wooden floor.

Yuuri had stood up and was whooping and yelling in triumph as if the Tigers had scored again.

But the game wasn't on. The scene being shown was something else entirely. "WHAT THE HELL, YUURI?!" Wolfram roared.

Seeing his error, Yuuri immediately helped Wolfram to his feet and started jumping up and down so enthusiastically that Wolfram soon found himself jumping as well.

"He won! He won! My candidate won!" Yuuri shouted happily.

Wolfram looked at him askance, finally having managed to stop jumping. "Your candidate?"

Yuuri shushed him and pulled him down to sit on his lap, just as he'd intended to do before. "Watch," the boy-king said.

Wolfram looked at the screen at the moving images of a rather dark-skinned, double-black male as he walked on a stage surrounded by a multitude of people, the blond not comprehending the scene at all. He looked to Yuuri for edification and saw him taking in the events with a big grin and wide-eyed interest. Wolfram immediately saw red. He grabbed the king by his pajama collar and demanded, "Who is that man, Yuuri? Who is he to you?! Answer me, you insufferable wimpy cheater!"

Yuuri just put his arm around Wolfram's waist and drew him close. "That, my love, is the next President of the United States," the king said with pride.

The blond Prince Consort raised a brow of slightly darker gold. "So? You're Japanese, not… United.. er, whatever they are,"

"Americans, love. Americans,"

"Fine. Whatever. You're not American. Why should this mean anything to you?" Wolfram said as he crossed his arms across his chest, thoroughly displeased. "Shori-onii-chan's the one who will do any negotiating with this Prez… – whatever he is in the future,"

"President, darling. President," Yuuri said gently and placatingly. He touched their foreheads together. "As for your question, I was born in Boston in the United States, the country Barack Obama will be leading. In a year, I will make arrangements to be a citizen of both Japan and America. Now do you understand why I'm excited about this?"

Wolfram harrumphed and turned his head away, smiling just the tiniest bit when Yuuri took his chin in his fingers and brushed his lips against his. Wolfram found himself slowly giving in: wrapping his arms around Yuuri's neck, looking into his eyes and sighing as he usually did when Yuuri got like this. Still, Wolfram had a couple of bones to pick. "You're king of your own country, and you have control of most of a world that looks to you for leadership…" Wolfram looked at Yuuri in a way the former hoped did not look like he was too anxious, but he couldn't help himself from whispering "Isn't that enough?" even though he was a little afraid of the answer.

The double-black looked his consort in the eyes and gave him a knowing smile. "Come here," he said, kissing his spouse again, just a little deeper this time, but a lot more reassuring. "I'll be good with just you, all worlds be damned," Yuuri murmured against Wolfram's lips. When they parted, the raven-haired monarch was rewarded by a big, bright smile and a look of unabashed adoration in stunning green eyes.

Wolfram moved off Yuuri's lap and sat beside his king instead, cuddling up against him and putting Yuuri's arm around him again. For the second time that evening he wished he was in his nightgown, rueing the cold of the first winter frost framing their Earth home's windows. The desire to make up for years of insensitivity taught Yuuri to be extra mindful of Wolfram's needs, one might say, as the king's hand grabbed the sofa's woollen cover and wrapped it around them both before securing it around Wolfram with his arm once more. Yuuri got a pleased purr from his now-comfy partner.

Wolfram turned and rested his chin on the side of Yuuri's shoulder so that his eyes were looking up at Yuuri's again. "This President person must be as popular as you, Wimp. So many people are cheering his coronation," Wolfram commented, gesturing at the crowds that surrounded Barack Obama in the screen. To Wolfram's surprise and annoyance, Yuuri laughed.

"He should be, darling. After all, it's the people who put him in office. And it's not exactly a coronation. It's an election." Yuuri explained.

"What?!" Wolfram said disbelievingly.

The Demon King gave a good-natured shrug and repeated himself.

"I don't understand."

Yuuri considered for a moment. Of course the concept of a democratic society of the people, by the people and for the people would be alien to his spouse. The divine right of kings was something Wolfram had been brought up to believe in all his life. Yuuri gave another mental shrug.

"An election is where the people vote to pick the person who will be the new head of their government."

"Oh, like the Ten Aristocrats picking the new Maoh," Wolfram said before he thought. Realizing that this might not have been the most tactful comparison, he added hastily, "How many of them are there?"

"Uh, they don't have aristocrats like that in the United States," Yuuri said.

"Well, SOMEBODY votes in this election thing," Wolfram said impatiently. "I don't care what they're called."

"Everybody votes," Yuuri said. "Well, everybody who's a citizen, and who wants to. This time that was—" he snuck a quick peek at the TV screen "—about 125 million people, looks like."

"125 MILLION? They have that many nobles?" Wolfram was impressed.

"No, I just told you, they don't do that there. It's just ... just regular people."

"You mean they let the _commoners_ pick their own ruler?"

"Pretty much."

"That's ridiculous," Wolfram said flatly. "You can't run a country that way. What if they pick wrong? They'd be stuck with an incompetent ruler!"

Yuuri laughed. "A lot of people think that's what happened last time. It'll be a big relief when Obama-san takes over in January."

"Wait, what? I thought he just got electionated! Isn't he Prezent now?"

"President, and no, he's just been elected. He doesn't actually become President until he's inaugurated in January and the last guy turns everything over to him."

"WHAT? You mean the last Prez—President is still in charge? And he's just going to—to give up the throne to this new guy, for no reason?"

Yuuri sighed, and decided not to even try to explain that it wasn't a throne. "Not for no reason. His term is up, and the people picked a new President."

"His...term?"

"They elect a President for four years, and then if they like him, they elect him again for another four, but that's all."

Wolfram stared at Yuuri as if he had suddenly grown the bat wings his mother went on about every so often. "That's _stupid_. How can he get anything important done in only four years? Or even eight? I bet you're going to say that they don't even let him pass laws by himself!"

"Uh...well...yeah. I mean, no, they don't. They have a Congress – a bunch of other people they elect – that passes the laws. The President gets to decide whether to sign them or not, though." Yuuri thought of his desk back in Shin Makoku, and shuddered. "Kind of like all that paperwork Gunter gives me all the time." He looked at Wolfram's expression and added hastily, "Hey, even in Shin Makoku, only a despot makes laws without consulting people!"

"OK, that does it." Wolfram threw off the cover and pushed himself up off the couch. "They let COMMONERS pick their ruler? And then they only give him EIGHT YEARS to get everything done before THEY pick somebody else? And on top of THAT, they won't even let him be a despot? That's IT! This world is _insane_! I'm going HOME!" He stalked toward the bathroom.

"Hey!" Yuuri scrambled after him. "Wolf! Don't be like that."

Wolfram stopped suddenly and turned to Yuuri with a suspicious glare. "You aren't planning on trying to make US do anything ridiculous like that, are you?"

"Huh?" Yuuri stared at him. "No, of course not! C'mon, Wolf, sit back down."

"It sounds just like the sort of stupid, wimpy thing you'd try," Wolfram said, but he allowed himself to be coaxed back toward the couch. Suddenly his eyes narrowed. "Why do you know all this, anyway? Gunter and my big brother had to all but strap you into your seat to discuss the politics of your own country and you whined or tried to escape! How can you be more versed in all this legalese that has nothing to do with Your." The blond hit him with a throw pillow. "Own." And again. "Kingdom!" And again, this time the hardest.

Yuuri shielded himself with the sofa cover and then forcibly yet gently wrapped Wolfram in it, embracing him and effectively restraining him. Now Yuuri was tempted to ask Wolfram to mewl like a cat like he'd read in a fan fiction about the two of them in this month's issue of a fan magazine from back home in the Demon Kingdom. Nah. He thought.

As soon as Wolfram saw that there was no chance for escape, he became a bit more amenable to Yuuri's motions for him to calm down. Not that he became any more reticent. "Well? I'm waiting."

Yuuri sweatdropped. Only Wolfram would manage to look authoritative – even downright menacing -- while swaddled in a sheet and for the zillionth time, Yuuri was reassured about his choice of Prince Consort: Majesty was Wolfram's middle name. "Well darling, er…" he fumbled. Yuuri took a second to compose himself then continued. "Let's just say that America is this world's equivalent of Shin Makoku. What happens in their country pretty much affects the whole world's economic and political climates."

Wolfram tilted his head cutely to one side as if he needed a moment to process it. It didn't make sense to him how Yuuri could not have been raised in this "America" if that was the case, although he thought it made sense for Yuuri to have been born there. The Prince Consort asked the next question that nagged at him. "And what of Japan? To which country would you compare it to?"

Years' worth of economic reports, war council documents and general information flashed through the king's mind in a second. For a moment Yuuri felt like Ashton Kutcher's character must have in The Butterfly Effect. He then shook his head and re-focused on the magnificent picture of an angry Wolfram still waiting for an answer. "Er, we're not nomadic like the people of Svelera, and we don't only farm like Francshire… It's not all fisheries and marine industries like Karbelnikopf and we're really not all about forests and precious stones like Voltaire… probably Caloria?"

"CALORIA?!" Wolfram exclaimed in disbelief. Caloria had freeports and relied heavily on imports from all over to sustain itself. Not so good. On the other hand, it enjoyed goodwill from most countries, provided the world with ingenuous ideas and entertained it with a unique culture. A small but wealthy country involved in free trade and cultural exchange. Not bad. Not bad at all. Except… "YOU WIMP! ARE YOU JUST TRYING TO BE CLOSE TO LADY GILBIT?!"

Wolfram was suddenly freed from woollen captivity as Yuuri released his hold of him, and immediately the blond regreted having mentioned Lady Flynn. Lady Flynn was a friend. Foul ball, Wolfram realized. "Yuuri!" he called desperately after the king who'd already left him alone in the living room. "Yuuri, I'm sorry -- I couldn't help myself… I'm still so very scared about losing you -- Yuuri, please…" the prince begged and reached out to grasp the monarch's sleeve but missed it by an inch. The king continued to stride full speed into… their room? Curious, Wolfram followed. "Yuuri?"

When Wolfram found Yuuri, the king was on one knee, holding a small black velvet box between his fingers that had the words 'Harry Winston' etched on it in gold. The year before, Wolfram had learned English from Shori, thinking it wise to learn what Shori said was the universal language on Earth. Eh? The blond thought. "Yuuri? What the hell are you doing, you damn wimp? Get back on your feet! You should never bend your knee to anyone, least of all me!"

Yuuri lowered his eyes to the box and opened it carefully, revealing a beautiful diamond engagement ring. "Wolf, I bought this house and brought you to Earth all in the space of a week to tell you this," Yuuri began nervously, before he looked up to his Prince Consort with a smile. "Two men or two women can get married in Massachusetts where I was born in the United States. Like Ellen DeGeneres in California before…"

Wolfram's eyes narrowed dangerously, so Yuuri decided to try another another way to explain. "Er, never mind. Anyway that's why I've taken an interest in their laws recently. I was thinking that since we're already married in Shin Makoku, we can stay as we are until I've become a dual citizen of the US and Japan, and until Shori is finished with the documents that would give you an Earth identity and make you a dual citizen as well so I can marry you and also make it easy for you to live here with me in Japan when we're not in Shin Makoku. You'll never have to worry about losing me or about my loyalty to you ever again, Wolfram. By this I want you to know that on earth, as in Shin Makoku – in both the two known worlds… it's my honor to be with you. For a few decades or a thousand years… for as long as you want me." He took the ring out of the mount and put it on Wolfram's finger. It fit perfectly. The diamond was cut princess-style and big but not so it was gaudy, and it shone like the sun that reminded the king of Wolfram's hair. "Please marry me."

Wolfram threw himself into Yuuri's embrace – and this time, he had strong arms and a warm body waiting for him when he landed. "Yes!" Wolfram answered. "I will marry you, Yuuri," he breathed dreamily against Yuuri's neck. Wolfram drew back a moment later, and saw Yuuri leering at him predatorily.

"Wolf," Yuuri said huskily, his voice decidedly a note lower than normal.

"Yes?"

"That word is exactly what I'll make you scream all night long."

And as always, Yuuri stayed true to his word. Oh, and after that night, Wolfram found that Earth politics and law wasn't so bad after all.

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**Sayo sez**: Thanks to _**DaystarsMom**_ for writing in the politics part. I'd also like to take this opportunity to say that I'm not American, so please don't hurt me.

Thanks also to _**Forbidden**_-san for the correction about California.


End file.
